Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Hiccup

If there's one thing I've learned as an ultrarunner and as a mother, it is that things rarely go as planned. In fact, it's better to plan for the unexpected, to anticipate that your training isn't going to completely match that pretty excel sheet with all those numbers you are trying to hit, and to translate that into life in general too. Except I'm a planner. I write out our schedule for the week and put it up on the fridge door. I have a pad going by the computer with tasks for each day and I cross things off as I do them. I really like order. And I really prefer to not have any hiccups in my day, my week, my training, heck, my life. But, see above. Something is pretty much always going to muck up the works at some point.

So, when we headed south this past weekend, Sam had a cough. We laughed, because it seems like she is always sick or gets sick at Ryan's parent's house. Ha ha. Except that by Sunday night she had a fever too. It was clear on Monday morning that she shouldn't go to school. So, I worked the morning and Ryan worked the afternoon. I didn't run the 10 mile back-to-back run as I had planned. I didn't get much of anything done, in fact. Poor kiddo. It really sucks to have your kid sick. We repeated the routine on Tuesday, except that after another night of not sleeping and coughing, I called the doctor and got an appointment for Ryan to bring Sam in mid-morning. After a breathing treatment and some other checking, it was decided that she had a respiratory virus, meaning there's not much we can do about it. He suggested using the inhaler several times a day and prescribed a small dose of prednisone for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, the cough won't go away immediately and she was still pretty worn out, so she was home again today. I did however get out for a short run today before Ryan headed into work for his shift. I ran a variation on the Patriot Commons loop for 4 miles, feeling creaky and tired and sort of out of sorts. But I really needed to run, so I'm glad I was able to get out even if for a short, so-so run.

Sam was definitely feeling more energetic today, and definitely bored from three straight days of not doing much at home, so we got out this afternoon for a trip to the dump to drop off the recycling and stopped at the library to play for a bit. She is still coughing a lot though, but it's loosening up, so things are headed in the right direction at least. Although tonight in the bath she said, "It really sucks to be sick." :-) Yes, sweetie, indeed it does. We're hoping she can get to school tomorrow at least for the morning. It would be nice to get back to a regular routine after this minor hiccup. And it sure would be nice to have Sam back to being healthy!